How I Became a Memory Coach | Jim Kwik

You told me about the very first time you had a memory training course in college. Walk me through what happened because that's the coolest story ever.

Oh, I mean, I think everyone is— first of all, I think everybody is capable of doing these things and learning these things. It's just there's no such thing— if someone's watching this right now and they feel absent-minded, like they walk into a room and just forget why they're there, or they're taking a shower and they can't remember if they shampooed their hair and they end up doing it twice. Or they'll read a page in a book, get to the end, just forget what they just read.

Yeah, why is the fridge door open? I don't remember.

Exactly. Or they misplace things like their phone or their car keys. Or if not their car keys, something much larger like their car. You see the people out in the mall parking lots using their remote control, using their keys to be able to find their GPS or car.

Sort of like they're just listening for the beeping sound somewhere. Exactly.

All of that can be fixed. And that's just remedial things. What we teach leaders or how to be able to do advanced things like learn languages faster, learn subject physical skills even faster, because there's a muscle memory also, remember their dreams, because a lot of amazing things come out of our dream states, right? Inventions and songs and pieces of art and everything else like that. So I wanted to teach it to other individuals, and so I put up— I wasn't sure how to do it, and so I found a room that wasn't being used one Thursday evening.

You were like a freshman in college?

I was a freshman. So I found this this room that wasn't being used. I said, okay, because I used to teach tennis back in high school, and I was like, well, maybe I could tutor individuals. And I said, how would I find them? I found this room that wasn't being used. So when I got back to my dorm room, I took a piece of paper and I wrote— this is my first, like, marketing, if you will. It said, free speed reading memory tips, get better grades in less time. And I put the room and Thursday, 7 o'clock. And the next morning, I just make some I made some photocopies on the way to class. I put it onto bulletin boards. And actually, I never shared this story publicly, so it's kind of interesting that we're talking about this. Just put some flyers on the way to class. Fast forward to Thursday, 7 o'clock, and I'm just hoping that just 5 people show up. And I turn the corner, and there's a crowd of people outside of that classroom. And I'm like, oh no, I hope whatever is going on ends soon. So I could do my thing. And, uh, and I go up, I can't even get inside the, the classroom because there's this really tall guy there. I was like, what's going on inside? And he looks at me and he's like, there's a speed reading class. And I'm thinking, wow, what a coincidence. Like, what are the chances that the same room, the same night, the same day, the same time, that there's a speed reading memory class, right? And I go in there and the room is packed full of people, and— but no one's teaching. And I get— I'm like, whoa, what's going on? And it took my slow brain all that time to figure out why they're there.

They're for you.

Yeah. And I do a headcount, and instead of 5 or 10 people, there's 110 people.

Wow.

And I freak out. And a lot of people who are watching this, maybe they have a little fear of public speaking. I have a full-out phobia at the time.

Do you still, or you had it at the time?

Because at that time, I grew up with learning challenges. So when you feel like You're broken and not good enough, you're not really connecting with people. You become very shy, very introverted.

I've been there. I get that.

Yeah. And so I, um, my heart's beating out of my chest and I'm perspiring. And I've, I, I mean, I've spent a lot— I go on a lot of adventures and you know this. I've spent a lot of time in the rainforest and I've actually come across an indigenous tribe and we were their very first Western contact.

Whoa, I didn't know that one.

And we, we lived by the second night having dinner with them, by the third day playing with their kids. By the 4th and 5th day, we're doing these incredible journeys with them. I mean, amazing. But I swear, in the rain, I was perspiring more in that classroom than I did the entire rainforest experience. Um, anyway, I'm so nervous I leave because I can't even talk, right?

You're going to like give up on your dream.

I can't even do this. And I go— the campus has, um, all these fountains, right? And the water always brings me back to I always have to live by the water and vacation by the water. And I can't even go back to my dorm room because they're just going to make— my friends are just going to make fun of me, right? And so I'm just meditating by— and I think meditation, mindfulness, as so many of your guests talk about, is so key to learning and high performance. I just meditate by the water, stillness of mind. And I'm a big Bruce Lee fan. Yeah, you're a Bruce Lee fan. And I feel like water and all that. And, um, yeah, we just celebrated his 75th birthday, which is amazing. I got to go to the hospital where Bruce was actually born with his wife and with his daughter. I mean, I learned so much from his family.

That is being a Bruce Lee fan, right?

It is. And I'm just meditating, and when I'm— I'm actually walking back to my dorm room doing this walking meditation, and I stop and I hear this voice inside my head. It's my mother's voice, and I won't tell you exactly what she says, but essentially it's, all these people came out to learn something. You're not delivering, you're disappointing them, you're disappointing me kind of thing. And I stop and I take one step back to the classroom instead of my dorm room. And it's so funny, Dave, and I think everyone can relate, that one step in another direction can completely change your destination or your destiny, right?

Right.

And I go back and I share and I teach for 2 hours. And honestly, being a world memory expert, I don't even remember what I talked about for those 2 hours. But at the end, I remember exactly what I said. I said, you know, I don't know if I could help everybody here, but if you're interested, I just need 10 hours with you to teach you what I know, 2 hours a week for 5 weeks. And that's why all our online programs are that long.

Yeah.

To get over the 21, 30 days and really make it a habit where people can really read that way and remember names permanently like that. And I said, if you're interested, I'll be in the student center tomorrow. at noon, and then everyone leaves, and I don't— they don't— there's no response, no emotional response, good or bad. And when they leave, I'm confused, and I'm also exhausted. I end up falling asleep right on the carpet, and I get woken up. It was the best sleep I've ever had to this date. I get woken up by the classroom coming in the next morning.

Oh my God.

Staring at me. I get up, I go shower, I have breakfast, I go to class. 12 o'clock comes, I go to student center, And I'm hoping just one person just shows up, one person believed in what I was talking about and got value out of that session. But at the end of 90 minutes, 71 out of those 100 students signed up for a program that didn't even exist yet.

Wow.

A course on high mental performance, on accelerated learning, so people could read faster and study better and remember more. And from there, you know, I met all these amazing people, and then this was 2 decades ago, so.

That's—

Found my dharma, my mission.

That's an incredible story, and wow. Even just hearing it, this is the second time I've ever heard it. You told me that over dinner the first time, but I didn't realize you never shared that with anyone else.

Well, I think the lesson to take away, and I want to— we could go into some of the mindset of superheroes and accelerated learning and how to learn faster. The lesson, if you're gonna walk away with it, I think, is the power of decision. You know, when we make a decision to uplevel our learning or uplevel some area of our life, Everything could change, and it's not even just a little bit. I mean, you could 5x, 10x some of your results just by making a decision to do something new. I mean, we— going back to that quote with Einstein, the same level of thinking that's created your problem won't solve your problem. The whole definition that, you know, we talk about insanity, right? Doing the same thing expecting different results. It's just like making a little bit of a shift in your life could completely change where you end up in your relationships, in your business, in your wealth. in your vibe, in your body, right? Yeah.